attle of the Marne on land, Jutland was not
only itself a mighty feat of arms but one on which the whole war turned.

CHAPTER XXVI

SUBMARINING

(1917-1918)

Jutland proved to all hands in the German Navy that they had no chance
whatever against Jellicoe's Grand Fleet. But the great mass of the
German people never heard this truth; and even their navy hoped to win
under the water a victory it had found impossible on top. So, for the
last two years of the war, the Germans worked their hardest at what
they called the "Submarine Blockade." As this "Blockade" forced the
United States into war, and as its failure showed the Germans that, in
the end, they had no more chance under water than on top, we can all
see now that Jutland turned the scale.

The British fleets blockading Germany of course seized and kept for the
Government, as spoils of war, whatever warlike stores (guns, shells,
and so on) they could lay their hands on. But all the other goods the
Navy stopped the Government bought, paying fair market prices. So the
American and other neutrals trying to trade with the enemy had really
nothing to complain of; for a blockade at sea is very like a siege on
land, and nobody has ever pretended that a besieging army has not a
perfect right to stop any supplies of any kind from reaching the
besieged. Moreover, the crews of the ships trying to break the British
blockade were always very kindly treated, though their ships were
trying to help the enemy and make fortunes for their owners at the
expense of freedom.

But when we turn to the German "Submarine Blockade" of the British
Isles we find something quite different; for the German submarines sank
every ship they could, and they generally were as utterly careless
about the lives of the crews as they were about the cargo, no matter
what the cargo was. In short, Germany tried everything, no matter how
wrong, that could possibly hurt the hated British. She did let some
neutral ships go by without attacking them. But that was only because
she did not want to turn all the neutrals into enemies; and nothing
proves better what a fiendish crime her "Submarine Blockade" really was
than the fact that it forced even the Peace Party in the United States
to change its mind about the war.

For thirty-two months this Peace Party kept the United States out of a
war waged by Germany against the freedom of the world. There were a
good many reasons why. Most Americans